Surprises
by DanTheJogger93
Summary: Emma Swan's experience with surprises was very poor. Until she meets one Regina Mills in a café... her surprises? They're not that bad. AU, No Magic. Swan Queen. Written for mageofpie as a gift.


Ye Olde Disclaimer: I do not own OUAT or anything associated with it. I'm just a humble amateur writer who has an overactive imagination, and once in a blue moon gets inspiration to put it on paper.

This is a bit of a Mundane!AU without magic and stuff. A warning: I do not watch OUAT myself, but I read a lot of Swan Queen fics, and catch some gif snippets while lurking on tumblr. Therefore, OOCness is very likely.

As the summary says: The following fic is a gift for the ever adorkable mageofpie over on tumblr, and here on FFnet. I hope you enjoy it!

* * *

Emma Swan wasn't really a person who liked surprises. The bad ones usually resulted in her being kicked out of a foster home when she was younger, while the good ones tended to come back and bite her in the ass later on.

Whether it was an already-not-on-very-good-terms-with super religious foster parent coming home early to find her in a passionate lip-lock with one of the local high-school students, or finding a 20 dollar bill just lying on the streets and then being accosted by her current foster parents' bully of a son, Emma Swan's experience with surprises was very sour.

The latest one, namely a bastard named Neal, was just the worst one in the last few years. Making promises to her, and then leaving her to rot in prison, pregnant, cursing his very existence, wherever he was. Well, she had a few months to think about what to do with the baby.

After quite a good deal of thinking, she decided to give the baby up for adoption. No matter how much it pained her, no matter how many tears fell down her face at this decision, she knew for a fact that she could not take care of him or her properly, what with being a jobless ex-con that came from the system.

Emma sighed... The birth was going to happen very soon. She felt her eyes prick again, but there were no more tears left to cry.

* * *

A few years, and many hardships, later, a very pleasant surprise came in the form of a friend: the ever snarky, acerbic, haughty, often adorable (Emma never tells her that to her face; she's smarter than that), and downright gorgeous Regina Mills. They met one day in a café where Emma was working as a barista, working to pay for her college debt. The brunette was not the most social of people, but when she got talking... her passion could be felt radiating from her. Especially when you got her talking about her business. But one topic that really made her whole face soften and her smile widen was that of her son, Henry. Emma saw the pictures, and the 4-year old kid was too cute for words.

The two of them didn't quite hit it off at first (Emma really didn't spill that coffee on Regina on purpose just to have an excuse to talk to the beautiful woman. Honest!), but after a few meetings, awkward smiles, and futile attempts to have Regina stop calling her "Miss Swan", they got to talking about themselves.

Being an ex-con, no matter how shortly, was not really a plus in Regina's book, but being semi-successful with her life after being in the foster system apparently did earn her a few points. Regina shared a bit of her own life, about her crazy, controlling mother who wound up killing her fiancé for "not being worthy", about isolating herself from company after that, and re-emerging from that grief-filled hole only when little Henry walked (well... crawled) into her life, and she adopted him.

Emma returned the favor, talking about her abandonment by her unknown parents and her life in the system. How she went from house to house, and how she fell for the charms of a young man named Neal. About how he got her pregnant, and left her in prison after the crime while he ran. About Emma having to give up her baby.

The talk left them emotionally spent, but a bit closer than before.

* * *

The second surprise involving Regina was... not that surprising, when Emma thought about it, but not really welcome either.

Who would want to be hopelessly in love with their obviously straight friend?

But, Emma was in love, and she didn't know what to do.

It wasn't until Ruby, Emma's co-worker, finally had enough of Emma's laments behind the bar:

"Hey Em, would you do me a favor?" Ruby asked, a truly exasperated look on her face, "The 'I-just-lost-my-puppy' look is getting old; _talk_ to her." She even tapped her foot. "It can't hurt. You need closure, and you're either going to get that and move on, or get really, really lucky. It's a win-win!"

How couldn't it hurt? The more-than-likely awkwardness would not be good, especially after Regina began to open up more and more to her.

But, (un)fortunately for Emma, Ruby was a dastardly mastermind who thought to probe Regina herself on her relationship with Emma, pretending she was the "concerned co-worker/close friend" who was curious about their status. The light blush that went up Regina's face, before being replaced by a haughty scowl and venomous words, was enough for Ruby. Now she just had to get Emma to take the chance.

So when Emma went out to Regina's house one night, finally determined to have that talk with her, she really didn't expect the brunette's face to morph into slight shock, and then a smirk, when she told her. She also didn't expect the hands that grabbed her by the lapels of her jacket, but she didn't complain much after Regina's lips fused themselves to hers. Emma Swan was, again, pleasantly surprised by Regina Mills.

* * *

The third surprise was after the third anniversary of their relationship. Seeing the usually stoic Regina fidgeting while at the dinner table, Emma could only guess at what was wrong. Henry was eager to go to his room to continue re-reading the "Lord of the Rings" series for the fourth time or so (Emma sometimes wondered if she should just try to buy the entire bookstore in one go, to save them the trouble), and it seemed that Regina waited for him to go upstairs before she seemed to fortify herself and took a deep breath.

Hearing her obviously practiced speech wasn't that enlightening... but it didn't have to be, as Regina's sweaty, shaking palms under the dinner table couldn't hold on to the little box that fell to the floor with a quiet thud. Emma looked down at the box, then up at Regina with wide eyes, while Regina gave a sheepish smile and blurted out: "Will you marry me, Emma?"

Emma thought (perfectly reasonably, thank you very much) that her tackling Regina to the floor, giving her a thorough mouth inspection with her tongue, was a good enough answer for her.

* * *

The last surprise wasn't really restricted to Regina, but it was the best one yet.

They both knew that Henry was a curious boy, even more so as a teenager now, and since they both hadn't held back that he was adopted from him, they expected him to try to find out some things about his biological parents soon.

One day, while cuddling on the couch watching football (seriously, did that Suarez guy have a biting kink or something?), Emma and Regina didn't really expect Henry to come back home from the adoption agency he went to earlier with a file in hand, wearing a strange look on his face.

Handing Regina the file, he sat down, a calm seemingly washing over him. She looked at the file curiously, then opened it and began to read.

Seeing Regina's eyes go wider and wider as she read, Emma wondered what was so shocking about his parent or parents that deserved such a reaction from the normally stoic woman.

Not until the wide-eyed Regina numbly handed her the file, did Emma see the cause.

The tears that she thought had dried up long ago returned with a vengeance.

Henry (the cheeky little bugger) just smiled softly at her holding his arms out for a hug. Well... who was she to refuse that invitation? She lunged at him trying to hold back her bewildered sobs of joy.

As a misty-eyed Regina joined them, Emma Swan decided that she liked surprises.

* * *

A/N: Add a dash of amateurish writing, mix with a spoonful of clichés, and let it simmer for five minutes. Voila!

This is my first attempt at writing any kind of romance (if it can even be called such), so constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. :3 Also, I don't know how adoption agencies work, so I most likely made errors, but I'd think they'd keep files on anyone who personally leaves a baby with them.


End file.
